History TheAlcoholic / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/FatherBrown'': Lady Adams in "[[Recap/FatherBrownS1E2 The Flying Stars]]". When she's found drowned in the lake, it's initially assumed that she accidentally fell in while drunk.

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': Wine critic Nadia Simons in "[[ Recap/MidsomerMurdersS17E4A Vintage Murder]]". Even she admits it's a cliché.

** "Cure That Habit": Walter Denton plays a prank, sending a postcard in Mr. Conklin's name to the titular agency. The Head of the Board of Education, Mr. Stone, hears of it and comes to see his supposedly drunken principal. [[spoiler:HilarityEnsues as Mr. Conklin is suffering from an unfortunate case of the hiccups, having pets mistakenly placed in his office, and being spun around in a chair.]]

* ''Series/OddSquad'': Oprah, otherwise known as Ms. O, is the Director of Precinct 13579 and is depicted as a G-rated version of this, with her drink of choice being juice instead of anything truly alcoholic, like beer or wine. She has ''1,000 juice boxes on the daily'' and not drinking at least one causes her to experience severe withdrawal symptoms much like an alcoholic in RealLife would. It helps that she had a stake in the Shmumbers business, working alongside Yucks Shmumbers, her business partner and friend, to invent juice boxes before becoming an agent of Odd Squad. Her office also consists of a juice bar, complete with stools for her to sit at. When she becomes the Big O in Season 3, she gets a new office with a new juice bar that has white juice boxes, which match her color theme. She claims they taste like "power with a hint of cranberry".

** In "Essence of Life", Dan Kagan was a severe alcoholic until his wife Juliette became seriously ill and he became sober so he could care for her.
** In "Family Values", Brooke Miller started drinking as she was depressed over the fact that her husband Jerry was hardly ever home and left everything, including raising their children Candace and Russ, to her. She typically drank at least one glass of vodka and three glasses of wine per day. She eventually gave up drinking after the robot Gideon was able to get the Miller household in order.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek''

*** Scotty's solution to distracting an alien that takes over the ship in the episode "By Any Other Name" is to have a {{drinking contest}} with him, during which it's shown that he hides booze in his quarters. Upon finding himself in the 24th century, one of the first things he does is find Ten-Forward (''Enterprise's'' bar) and berate the bartender for serving poor quality "scotch", and then goes to drink alone in a holodeck.

* ''Series/FellowTravelers'': After his son's death, Hawkins Fuller becomes a drunkard. Among other incidents, he ruined his daughter's baby shower by knocking over the gift table because he was so inebriated. It had gotten so out of control that his wife Lucy gave him an ultimatum: seek treatment for his drinking or live somewhere else. Hawk chose to leave home and stay on Fire Island where he can indulge in substance abuse. His friend Rafael is concerned about his deteriorating health and confides to Tim that he needs to see a doctor. When Hawk vomits in the bathroom, Craig explains to Tim that he has developed gastritis due to the alcohol.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E23AWorldOfDifference A World of Difference]]", Gerald Raigan is a severe alcoholic whose drinking has cost him numerous acting jobs in the past.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E32APassageForTrumpet A Passage for Trumpet]]", Joey Crown's alcoholism has ruined his once promising career as a jazz trumpeter.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E47TheNightOfTheMeek The Night of the Meek]]", the [[MallSanta department store Santa]] Henry Corwin is a chronic alcoholic. After the store manager Mr. Dundee fires him for showing up late and falling over drunk in front of the customers, Henry angrily tells him that he drinks because he wants to forget about all of the misery and poverty that he sees on a daily basis and so that he can believe that he is the real SantaClaus.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E98TheDummy The Dummy]]", Jerry Etherson began drinking heavily after he became convinced that his ventriloquist's dummy Willie was alive. As a result of his drinking, he missed 110 performances and his agent Frank had to cover for him. Jerry tells Frank that he drinks in order to cope with his nightmares about Willie.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E121InPraiseOfPip In Praise of Pip]]", Max Phillips is an alcoholic and bitterly regrets that his drinking caused him to miss so much of his beloved son Pip's childhood.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E141SpurOfTheMoment Spur of the Moment]]", Anne and David Mitchell are both alcoholics in 1964. Anne's mother Mrs. Henderson scolds her for drinking and ignoring the fact that their house is going to be repossessed but Anne retorts that it helps her. She clearly drinks as an attempt to escape her [[AwfulWeddedLife miserable life with David]].
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E151TheEncounter The Encounter]]", Fenton is an alcoholic whose drinking has recently cost him his job and seemingly his marriage. It is implied that he drinks due to the PTSD that he suffers from fighting in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.

** In "Cold Reading", Milo Trent replaces Earl Sedgewick, who usually plays the title character's younger brother Timmy in ''Dick Noble, African Explorer'', as he has reportedly taken ill. The writer Nelson Westbrook's assistant Carla makes a drinking gesture at Milo, indicating that Sedgewick is too drunk to record his part.
** In "Time and Teresa Golowitz", the Prince of Darkness tells Bluestone that Mary Ellen Cosgrave spends most of her time in 1987 drinking vodka in a vague malaise about what she imperfectly remembers as her golden years.
** In "The Hellgramite Method", Miley Judson is a severe alcoholic whose drinking is ruining his life. Over the years, he has tried to quit many times through psychiatric treatment, aversion therapy and other methods but he always starts drinking again after two or three months at most. Miley's drinking has cost him many friends and is on the verge of costing him his marriage as his wife Frannie can't cope with much more. He admits that he both loves and hates alcohol. One night at a bar, Miley is approached by Dr. Eugene Murrich, who gives him a matchbox advertising the Hellgramite Method for treating alcoholism. When he goes to Dr. Murrich's house, he is given a pill to swallow. Murrich tells him that this is all there is to it. The next day, Miley discovers that he can't feel the effects of alcohol no matter how much he drinks. He confronts Dr. Murrich, who explains to him that the pill contained the larva of a Hellgramite worm. The larva has already grown and is absorbing all of the alcohol that Miley drinks. Murrich tells Miley that he can starve the worm into dormancy but he will have to [[GoingColdTurkey go cold turkey]] in order to do so. He also warns Miley that even if he is successful, the worm will come back stronger if he ever takes another drink.

%%* Leo [=McGarry=] on ''Series/TheWestWing'' was a recovering alcoholic.
%%** Also, Vice President John Hoynes -- stopped drinking at age 22.

** PhilJensen, John's writer friend from ''The Manhattanite'', is seen drinking in Cochran's Bar (the magazine's nearby watering hole) as often as he's seen at work. When he says "I'll drink to that" in the episode "Rules for a Happy Marriage," one of his magazine colleagues replies that he'll drink to anything. And in "The War between Men and Women," his wife accuses him of having drunk twelve martinis at John's party the previous evening -- Phil corrects her, saying he only had nine!